Free Anti-Virus Programs

[Michael Wright]

I've been a long-time user of CA EZ-Antivirus program. Their new version
has been causing me problems. I'm considering not renewing my subscription
to their program. I've heard of some "free" anti-virus program such as AVG
from Grisoft and also a product from Avast. Does anyone know if these are
good products and if they are reliable?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[Will Denny]

Hi Michael

Try the free version of AVG:

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

 

[Yves Leclerc]

AVG is not bad!

Also, CA EZ Antivirus is "free" for one year, this year.

 

[Jef Norton]

| I've been a long-time user of CA EZ-Antivirus program. Their new version
| has been causing me problems. I'm considering not renewing my
subscription
| to their program. I've heard of some "free" anti-virus program such as
AVG
| from Grisoft and also a product from Avast. Does anyone know if these are
| good products and if they are reliable?
|
| Thanks,
| Michael
|
|
|

Hi Michael -

I had problems with the new version 7 CA EZ-Antivirus as well.

I uninstalled the program and reinstalled (as opposed to installing over the
old version) and everything is working well now.

I think the user interface is pretty dumbed-down with the new version, but
the program appears to function well and I have not had any additional
issues since the clean reinstall.

Jef

 

[Michael Wright]

The problem I'm having is with it locking up sometimes during startup. Not
every time, but just often enough to make the computer totally unrealizable!
That is very frustrating to me.

Evidently it isn't a real common problem. I've tried uninstalling and
reinstalling as well and had it hang up during the first bootup after
installing! Amazing.

 

[Jef Norton]

| The problem I'm having is with it locking up sometimes during startup.
Not
| every time, but just often enough to make the computer totally
unrealizable!
| That is very frustrating to me.
|
| Evidently it isn't a real common problem. I've tried uninstalling and
| reinstalling as well and had it hang up during the first bootup after
| installing! Amazing.
|
|

Hi Michael -

What other applications are you running at startup?

The reason I ask is that many applications attempt to "phone home" at
startup to check for updates (including eTrust).

You may wish to perform a Selective Startup exercise.

Click Start | Run | Msconfig and click the Startup tab. Keep the check by
only one item at a time and restart a couple of times to see if you can
identify your culprit (dicey, I know, because you say that it only
"sometimes" hangs).

Another thought: What firewall are you running? If it's ZoneAlarm... there
has been a recent new release that corrected an occasional problem with the
computer hanging at startup (just before the ZA logo would appear in the
system tray). The problem first appeared when XP SP2 was released and was
(mostly) addressed in ZA version 5.1.033.000. Version 5.5.062.000 seems to
have completely corrected this problem.

Jef

 

[André Gulliksen]

I've been a long-time user of CA EZ-Antivirus program. Their new
version has been causing me problems. I'm considering not renewing
my subscription to their program. I've heard of some "free"
anti-virus program such as AVG from Grisoft and also a product from
Avast. Does anyone know if these are good products and if they are
reliable?

AVG: http://www.grisoft.com
Free version with free updates. I think it requires (free) registration.

Avast!: http://www.avast.com
Also a free version with free updates. Requires free registration, which
must be renewed every 14 months or so.

I have used both, and they should both be reliable. Personally I prefer
Avast! because the interface keeps out of your way, and after installation
you won't even know the program is there unless it detects a virus.

 

[MikeP]

AntiVir PE, free from www.free-av.com

 

[André Gulliksen]

AntiVir PE, free from www.free-av.com

Is this software still as crappy as it was about five years ago?

 

[Guest]

Even AVG is better than it was just six months ago. Most of the free AV
programs do an "adequate" job on a stand alone home use computer. AV with
Free Spyware\adware scanners, pop-up blockers, programs like SpywareBlaster
and SpywareGuard, and the XP firewall will give you about all the security
you can need, or want, for free.

 

[James A. Smith]

I use AVG.
No probs here.

 

[MikeP]

No problems whatsoever.
http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/products.xml?table

 

[Frank]

Are you going to check all of the groups for replies?????
It would take all day.

 

[André Gulliksen]

No problems whatsoever.

So you no longer have to reinstall the entire application every time you
wish to update your virus definitions? This was the case when I used it, and
I recently read a review saying that this was still the case.

 

[André Gulliksen]

Even AVG is better than it was just six months ago.

I prefer to judge reliability from history rather than from version numbers
and feature sets. In the case of Antivir PE, the history does not look very
good, althought things seems to have picked up fairly recently.

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Michael Wright skrev:

from Grisoft and also a product from Avast. Does anyone know if these are
good products and if they are reliable?

I use avast! and would recommend that. Free, good virus-scanner, good
mail-scanner. Easy to use (I think). http://www.avast.com

BTW: I trimmed down the "Followup-To" list a bit

 

[Guest]

I have used AVG from Grisoft for several years now and have not once gotten a
virus. It has so far caught anything and everything, and this is the FREE
VERSION. I am using the CA anti-virus and firewall because it came free for
one year with my upgrade to Windows XP, but I also run my AVG along side of
other anti-virus app, just to be double safe. I have done this for about six
months and have had no problems or conflicts doing so.

Susie Q
*************************************************

 

[Jimmy]

I have used AVG from Grisoft for several years now and have not once
gotten a virus. It has so far caught anything and everything, and
this is the FREE VERSION. I am using the CA anti-virus and firewall
because it came free for one year with my upgrade to Windows XP, but
I also run my AVG along side of other anti-virus app, just to be
double safe. I have done this for about six months and have had no
problems or conflicts doing so.

Susie Q

If you have never had a virus present then your application has never HAD
to work or do it's job. This is not a good judge of the AV SW but only to
say you have never had a auto accident because your insurance was working
perfectly. The most important thing is to practice everything safely and
don't take any unnecessary chances.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

They also just released a new version which is much better than their
old version. The CPU usage is much lower on AVG than any other AV that
I've used. Other than the GUI of AVG being really ugly, it works
exceedingly well

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

I rate avast! good just becuase it (so far) has caught ALL viruses in
e-mails (not suspicous e-mails with attachments has slipped through).
The mail scanner is one of the things I like most about avast!